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Pojo's Pokémon Card of the Day

 

 M Venusaur EX

- Generations

Date Reviewed:
April 8, 2016

Ratings & Reviews Summary

Standard: 1.5
Expanded: 1.5
Limited: 4.0

Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale.
1 being horrible.  3 ... average.  5 is awesome.

Back to the main COTD Page


aroramage

And finally here we have M Venusaur-EX. 

...I'm just gonna get right to it, honestly. Bloom Buster is okay, being 4-for-130 as an attack and with a 50/50 shot of dealing 30 damage to each of your opponent's Benched Pokemon. Without the coin flip, this attack might have been worth it, but considering that M Venusaur-EX lacks that Spirit Link (which you've got the XY version to thank for, no doubt) and that the extra damage is 50/50, you're not gonna want to run this guy as much. 

In an ideal setting, I'd be running the Generations Venusaur-EX with the XY M Venusaur-EX, to be honest. I mean, we've got Forest of Broken Plants to accelerate the Evolution factor already, so all that's needed is that Spirit Link which we won't get because that would be even more ridiculous. Even if M Venusaur-EX (GEN) didn't have the coin flip, I don't think it would see much play strictly because of the lack of Spirit Link, and if there was, it promotes the XY version far more. 

As far as Mega-EX go, he's stuck with the remains of the Flashfire M Charizard-EX's in terms of usability: you're gonna need a Qwilfish (FLF) to make him work.

...and nobody plays Qwilfish anymore. 

Rating 

Standard: 1.5/5 (compared to the XY Mega and its GEN base form, M Venusaur-EX is extremely underwhelming) 

Expanded: 1.5/5 (at least Crisis Vine could Paralyze AND Poison) 

Limited: 4/5 (even if it does cost 4 Energy...) 

Arora Notealus: One day these Kanto starters will get their time in the competitive spotlight...I mean Blastoise gets it enough, yeah, but I guess I mean for Charizard and Venusaur as well XP 

Weekend Thought: What are your thoughts on this week's cards? You enjoy taking a look at some of the interesting bits from BREAKpoint and Generations? Or maybe you're already looking ahead towards Fates Collide, which is coming out in just under a month? Still needs some of those cards to be revealed, but it looks like it'll be interesting, yeah?

Otaku

We finish the week with M Venusaur-EX (Generations 2/83). I am crunched for time so this is a good time to experiment with a slightly revised approach.  I am just going to run through Venusaur-EX (XY 1/146, 141/146), Venusaur-EX (Generations 1/83), M Venusaur-EX (XY 2/146), and M Venusaur-EX (Generations 2/83) all at once, kind of like how I cover other Stages of Evolution, alternate Evolutions, etc.  All are Grass Type Pokémon-EX with Fire Weakness, no Resistance, Retreat Cost [CCCC], no Ancient Trait and no Ability.  Being a Grass Type includes some useful support like Ariados, Forest of Giant Plants, Revitalizer and Vileplume (XY: Ancient Origins 3/98), though there are definitely better supported Types.  There are some Grass Type counters but about the only one of note - Bouffalant (XY: Primal Clash 119/160) which we reviewed here - is still seldom played.  Nothing is Grass Resistant unless we worry about Unlimited and we aren’t.  Grass Weakness isn’t everywhere but is seen on many Water Types like Keldeo-EX and some Fighting Types like Primal Groudon-EX.  Fire Weakness could be bad because Entei (XY: Ancient Origins 15/98), Flareon-EX and Flareon (BW: Plasma Freeze 12/116) have kept fire from flickering out, but there are definitely worse Types to have a Weakness to at the moment.  The Retreat Cost of [CCCC] is as bad as it gets; make sure you’ve got something to help with getting these Pokémon out of the Active slot, or to tank while there, or both.  Being a Pokémon-EX means giving up an extra Prize when KOed, inability to access certain beneficial effects, and being the target of certain detrimental ones.  It also means that instead of being say a Stage 2 and BREAK Evolution this is a Basic and a Mega Evolution. 

Both Venusaur-EX are Basics with 180 HP.  Being a Basic is the best and the HP is the higher of the two typical scores for Basic Pokémon-EX.  It is enough to often take a hit.  Both M Venusaur-EX are Mega Evolutions with 230 HP.  Being a Mega Evolution usually entitles a Pokémon to better attributes and effects than usual, but comes with a crippling rule that ends your turn when you Mega Evolve.  The successful Mega Evolutions have almost always gotten around this.  The best M Venusaur-EX can do is try to hit the field on a turn when you would not be attacking anyway, such as using Forest of Giant Plants to Evolve on the very first turn of the game (which is not always an option), and that is still only good for a single copy.  230 HP at is only 10 shy of the maximum we’ve seen printed on Mega Evolutions and 20 shy of the maximum we’ve seen printed on any Pokémon card legal for actual play.  It still can be OHKOed because anything can but it is tricky outside of Weakness.  The lack of a Spirit Link is going to be a problem but so far these cards are looking pretty good. 

Then we get to the attacks: both Venusaur-EX have two attacks and both M Venusaur-EX have one.  Each Venusaur-EX has an attack that costs [GCC] and an attack that costs [GGCC].  The good news is that means easy Energy acceleration like Double Colorless Energy is an option, but the bad news is that still makes these slow; without an additional method of Energy acceleration you won’t be able to power up and attack with a Venusaur-EX in a single turn.  The actual attacks aren’t that good either.  The smaller attack for Venusaur-EX (XY 1/146, 141/146) “Poison Powder”, which does 60 damage and Poisons the opponent’s Active.  This is a poor damage-to-Energy ratio for a competitive Basic Pokémon-EX even with the Poison helping out.  Plus thanks to Ariados and (in Expanded) Hypnotoxic Laser, the Poison just isn’t that big of a bonus.  “Jungle Hammer”, the second attack, has the same problem as it only does 90 damage and heals 30 damage from Venusaur-EX.  For four Energy I need a lot more than 90 damage even with a bit of healing added in; after all healing 30 isn’t much and healing as a part of attacks has rarely been worth it in the history of the game.  Venusaur-EX (Generations 1/83) manages to have a worse smaller attack as its “Frog Hop” only does 40 damage with a coin flip to try and do an extra 40.  For three Energy it needed to do 80 just to be underwhelming, so a 40/80 split is just bad.  Its second attack is Poison Impact and it does a bit better.  While I pointed out Poison isn’t thrilling, it also at least still better than nothing and this attack also inflicts Sleep at the same time.  With some luck (both in terms of coin flips and what your opponent has in hand) you can leave your opponent stuck for the follow-up attack to score a 2HKO.  Still this is not worth the effort.  Good thing we were hoping to use Forest of Giant Plants to immediately Mega Evolve. 

At least it will be good if either M Venusaur-EX bring something worthwhile.  M Venusaur-EX (XY 2/146) needs [GGGC] to use its “Crisis Vine” attack, which does 120 damage and not only Poisons the opponent’s Active but also Paralyzes it.  The damage plus effects are decent for the Energy, at least in abstract.  A lot of people think the guaranteed Paralysis is amazing but that would only be true if it were easier to get this card into play and to power up the attack.  Even if there was a Spirit Link for this card, [GGGC] is a steep cost.  If a “Venusaur Spirit Link” was available you’d still need Forest of Giant Plants and the capacity to accelerate three Energy to Venusaur-EX/M Venusaur-EX to bust Crisis Vine out in a single turn.  It doesn’t hit hard enough to score a reliable OHKO against most other Pokémon-EX.  It also doesn’t create a very good lock; Paralysis is mostly a problem right now because it is not a central part of many deck strategies.  Most decks do have an option or two to deal with it and a good portion have a great counter like Keldeo-EX with a Float Stone or Virizion-EX and its “Verdant Wind” Ability.  If an attack is meant to lock it usually needs to be a lot more affordable.  After all when you do OHKO something smaller, like say a Vespiquen (XY: Ancient Origins 10/98), you break your own lock.  Separately all these elements can be great but together?  Not so much.  Now reality is there is not a Spirit Link so this is definitely not worth running.  If you want more detail on Venusaur-EX (XY 1/146, 141/146), Venusaur-EX (Generations 1/83), and/or M Venusaur-EX (XY 2/146) each has its own respective CotD. 

So at last we come to the real star, today’s M Venusaur-EX (Generations 2/83).  Its attack is “Bloom Buster”.  This time it has the [GGCC] cost that, while not great, at least means a Double Colorless Energy and double Mega Turbo can ready it in one… and as you’ll have a turn where you can’t attack anyway due to Mega Evolving, you can manually attach an Energy the turn before, then use a single Mega Turbo and a Double Colorless Energy the next turn.  The attack you get is decent.  130 damage to the opponent’s Active and a coin flip to hit everything on your opponent’s Bench for 30.  I like this better than Crisis Vine because a player can help it out a bit more easily.  Muscle Band means 150 damage or Trick Coin means a better chance at scoring the Bench damage.  Ariados or Hypnotoxic Laser (depending on the format) can supply more Poison damage and you might even risk a split Stadium line so that (after having Evolved most of the Grass Types you’ll need to Evolve) you drop good ol’ Virbank City Gym.  Victini (BW: Noble Victories 14/101, 98/101; BW: Black Star Promo BW32; BW: Legendary Treasures 23/113) can let you use your Pokémon Tool on something other than Trick Coin in Expanded.  The Bench damage can help with the attack’s damage as well; getting back to 130 with Muscle Band boosting it to 150, a previous Bench hit would then get the magic 180 that OHKOs most things below Mega Evolution level.  The thing is, even if this card had a Spirit Link, I don’t believe this would be enough.  After all, Bench damage is somewhat easy to block right now. 

So in the end, I don’t recommend any of these for Standard or Expanded play.  Whatever you do to make them work, you can get more out of it with a different main attacker.  For Limited, Generations is hard to come by.  Maybe I just totally missed it but I didn’t know of any Pre-Release events or similar Organized Play being done by Nintendo/TPC itself.  If someone locally set up an official tournament with product or you and some friends just decide to have some fun with a quick tournament using stuff you bought, today’s M Venusaur-EX is a solid pull.  It will be very difficult to pull both it and a Venusaur-EX and even with both in your deck you’ll need some luck to get them out and powered up, but it should be pretty amazing when you do.  Also the Energy costs are reasonably friendly towards running a deck with 2+ Energy Types, as is usually the case in Limited play. 

Ratings 

Standard: 1.65/5 

Expanded: 1.65/5 

Limited: 3.5/5 

Summary: M Venusaur-EX is a bit disappointing to end the week, but I do like this better than the original.


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